The assignee of the present invention manufactures and deploys spacecraft for, inter alia, communications and broadcast services. Such spacecraft may include a large variety of payload equipment (e.g., electronics, antennas, antenna feeds, imaging systems) and bus equipment (e.g., propulsion equipment, attitude control electronics, sensors and actuators, solar arrays and batteries) mechanically coupled with a spacecraft structural support system. The spacecraft structural support system may be required to sustain large loads during launch, to experience large daily temperature excursions during the spacecraft's lifetime, and may be required to maintain precise respective alignment of various components mounted thereon.
A variety of structural elements may be configured to meet the aforementioned requirements while also seeking to achieve objectives of low mass, low coefficient of thermal expansion and high rigidity. Truss-like structures such as those disclosed in US Patent Publication No. 2004/0128940, assigned to the assignee of the present invention, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,665,670 have been found to provide desirably lightweight and rigid spacecraft structures. Design optimization of such structures, in the absence of the presently disclosed techniques, has proven expensive and time-consuming.